Anna Feldman is the Strategic Use Programme Project Developer, at the Association of Progressive Communications (APC). The APC is an international association with a virtual office. Anna is currently working on web conceptualization and planning for GreenNet in the UK, a progressive ISP and founding organization of the APC.

Anna and I talked about the work of the APC at the NetSquared conference.

The Association of Progressive Communications was founded in 1990 and originally focused on developing protocols for networked communications amongst politically progressive organizations around the world. The association is today made up of 35 small member organizations all doing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) work for social justice.

Anna told me that the Association's most recent focus has been on rallying civil society in member countries to provide input into policy discussions at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Local organizers, called Animators, work around a variety of policy issues like Free and Open Source Software and community radio. The work is done in a way that frames ICT needs in terms of civil society engagement and communication rights, she said.

In addition to policy input mobilization, the Association also fosters strategic use and capacity building. Its programs focus on things like how to build and manage community wireless networks and Free and Open Source Software development and implementation. Anna says that member exchanges and training sessions have proven to be some of the most important mechanisms to foster knowledge transfer amongst partner organizations.

Anna also wanted to make sure that readers here saw the APC project GenderIT.org, a community of gender advocates working for consideration of the impacts on women and the global poor of policy decisions and technology. GenderIT emerged out of the creation of a cyber cafe at the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing.

Anna Feldman is the Strategic Use Programme Project Developer, at the Association of Progressive Communications (APC). The APC's truly fantastic website also has an English language section.

Anna was the immoderator at the NetSquared conference session titled Human rights and new communication technologies: building an architecture of participation. You can read Christine Herron's blog coverage of that session at Christine.net.